• News & Views • SPARC Local Workshop on “WCRP Grand Challenges and Regional Climate Change” Joowan KIM 1 , Seok-Woo SON 2 , Hye-Jin KIM 2 , Baek-Min KIM 3 , and Changhyun YOO ∗4 1 Department of Atmospheric Sciences, Kongju National University, Gongju 32588, Republic of Korea 2 School of Earth and Environmental Sciences, Seoul National University, Seoul 08826, Republic of Korea 3 Korea Polar Research Institute, Incheon 21990, Republic of Korea 4 Department of Climate and Energy Systems Engineering, Ewha Womans University, Seoul 03760, Republic of Korea (Received 19 February 2018; revised 2 March 2018; accepted 4 March 2018) Citation: Kim, J., S.-W. Son, H.-J. Kim, B.-M. Kim, and C. Yoo, 2018: SPARC local workshop on “WCRP Grand Challenges and Regional Climate Change”. Adv. Atmos. Sci., 35(6), 624–627, https://doi.org/10.1007/s00376-018-8045-2. 1. Overview SPARC (Stratosphere–Troposphere Processes and their Role in Climate) is one of the core projects of the World Climate Research Program (WCRP), coordinating interna- tional efforts to address relevant issues in climate and cli- mate prediction via better understanding of the stratosphere– troposphere system. SPARC is a broad umbrella body that supports many scientific activities solving environmental is- sues, such as atmospheric dynamics and predictability, chem- istry and climate, and long-term records for understanding climate. Much of the scientific activity of SPARC is di- rectly linked to the WCRP’s “grand challenges”, particularly the issues of “Clouds, Circulation and Climate Sensitivity”, “Weather and Climate Extremes”, “Near-term Climate Pre- diction”, “Carbon Feedbacks in the Climate System”, and “Melting Ice and Global Consequences”. A SPARC local workshop was held at the Korea Polar Research Institute, 18–20 October 2017, in Incheon, South Korea, focusing on “WCRP Grand Challenges and Regional Climate Change” to promote international collaboration on these issues. This SPARC-sponsored workshop aimed at not only international collaborations with Asian scientists, but also capacity development for SPARC-related activities in Asia. Active discussions among 79 scientists and students from 10 different countries (Fig. 1) filled the workshop and sessions of various SPARC and SPARC-related research top- ics on stratosphere–troposphere coupling, atmospheric com- position, Arctic climate, and climate change and variability. We briefly describe them below. 2. Stratosphere–troposphere coupling 2.1 Predictability The importance of stratosphere–troposphere coupling for ∗ Corresponding author: Changhyun YOO Email: cyoo@ewha.ac.kr sub-seasonal-to-seasonal prediction has been widely recog- nized. The workshop opened with an examination of pre- dictability issues, presented by In-Sik KANG, who investi- gated the role of the stratosphere in the boreal-winter sea- sonal prediction. He proposed that the stratospheric “mem- ory” could be a potential source of predictability in the trop- ics and the Pacific–North American regions and that sea- sonal forecasting could be significantly improved during bo- real winter by adding information on sea surface tempera- ture and the stratosphere. Harry HENDON discussed the im- pact of stratosphere–troposphere coupling and seasonal pre- diction by focusing on the Southern Hemisphere. He re- viewed the coupling processes and showed how the predic- tion skill of an Australian seasonal prediction model could be improved. Moreover, Yuna LIM presented the effect of the quasi-biennial oscillation (QBO) on the wintertime Madden– Julian oscillation (MJO), including its predictability. She showed that the enhanced MJO prediction during the east- erly phases of the QBO, highlighting that the QBO could be a predictability source of the MJO. However, the mecha- nism of the QBO–MJO relationship remains an open ques- tion. Relating the issues, Shigeo YODEN introduced an emerging SPARC activity that aims to improve knowledge on the stratosphere and troposphere influences on tropical con- vective systems (referred to by the acronym SATIO-TCS). He discussed the stratospheric influences on multi-scale pro- cesses in tropical convection. 2.2 Dynamical processes Dynamical processes of stratosphere–troposphere cou- pling, especially over the extra-tropical region, were pre- sented and discussed. Mainly, the participants discussed the strength of the coupling and detailed mechanisms in vari- ous atmospheric conditions. Andrew CHARLTON-PEREZ presented a regime behavior of the stratosphere–troposphere coupling in the North Atlantic. He showed that the negative phase of the North Atlantic Oscillation appeared more per- sistently during periods of weak stratospheric winds. Patrick © Institute of Atmospheric Physics/Chinese Academy of Sciences, and Science Press and Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature 2018